No conflict between jurisdictions of NFRA, ICAI: Thakur

The government on Monday said there is no conflict between the jurisdictions of the National Financial Reporting Authority and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

NFRA, set up under the Companies Act, 2013, looks into matters relating to formulation of accounting and auditing standards as well as compliance with them. ICAI has been constituted under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.

"There is no conflict between the jurisdictions of ICAI under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 and NFRA under the Companies Act, 2013 as their functions and jurisdiction are distinct," Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur told the Lok Sabha.

Noting that both are not similar accounting regulatory bodies, the minister said their respective roles and areas of functioning are different.

In a written reply, he said the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AASB) of ICAI would also continue to perform its role and shall submit its recommendations on Auditing Standards to the government through the NFRA.

"The Quality Review Board (QRB) will also continue quality audit in respect of private limited companies, public unlisted companies below prescribed threshold and also with respect to audit of those companies that may be delegated to QRB by NFRA.

"ICAI will continue to exercise disciplinary control over the auditors of all companies which are not being covered by NFRA," he said.

Further, Thakur said Section 132 (4) of the Companies Act, 2013 has a non-obstante clause and hence NFRA shall have no over-lapping effect on any other law in force.